Project Linus was established in America in the mid-1990s when Karen Loucks saw a newspaper article showing how much a comfort blanket had helped a young cancer victim. Project Linus UK was created some five years later in March 2000 when a Birmingham quilter wanted to similarly help children in need.
A community interest company, Project Linus UK is run entirely by volunteers and has a team of coordinators throughout the UK, who distribute beautifully made quilts and blankets, as well as organise sewing and fundraising events.
The Coordinator for Oxfordshire is Ani Catt who lives in Witney and helps ensure that the work produced by a team of over 100 quilters for Project Linus UK is distributed within the county where the quilts are most needed. Ani runs free Project Linus UK workshops in Witney Library on the first Friday of the month and at Carterton Library on the last Friday of each month from 1.30pm to 3.30pm. She also holds Project Linus Sewdays at Witney Methodist Church and at Freelance Fabrics in Kidlington on various dates throughout the year. Workshops will also be held in Faringdon Library once its refurbishment is completed in early 2023. Contact Ani for more details if you are interested in attending. The sessions aim to make quilts, blankets, bags, and teddies for the children and at the same time enable people to gain new quilting skills or improve their existing skills. People attending these events need to bring their sewing machine although there is often handwork too. Machine-sewn quilts are much stronger and as gifts for Project Linus UK, they need to sustain considerable washing.
Project Linus UK aims to provide gifts of new, homemade, washable quilts and blankets to babies, children and teenagers who are sick, disabled, disadvantaged, or distressed from babies to those aged 19. It is not only the vulnerable child who receives a quilt, knitted or crotched blanket, but their siblings do too as circumstances always affect the whole family. The quilts which are made in a range of sizes suitable for the age group for which they are intended are delivered to local families, hospitals, hospices, special needs schools, bereavement centres, foster and social care and many other outlets throughout Oxfordshire and around the UK.
When selecting a fabric to make a quilt, 100% dress-weight cotton is the most suitable as it washes well. The quilts, whether they are knitted or sewn need to be robust and machine-washable, in child-friendly colours. They must have no loops or 3D embellishments which could potentially be pulled off and swallowed or caught in hospital equipment. If the blanket is crocheted, it must be double crochet rather than treble stitches which makes too many dangerous holes for small fingers. The ideal sizes for the blankets or quilts are 30” to 40” for under five years, 40” to 45” for primary school age and 45” to single bed size for teenagers. Some of the quilts are sent to the JR Hospital to be used as incubator covers and Ani can provide more details and the relevant sizes to anyone wishing to make something suitable.
For people who enjoy knitting as well as sewing, Project Linus UK loves to hand out small, knitted teddy bears with the quilts. Patterns for the bears are available from Ani Catt.
During the early part of the Covid lockdown, the previous Oxfordshire Area Co-ordinator was contacted by a member of staff from Liberty’s in London who lived in Oxfordshire. The store was reorganising their warehouse and kindly-donated many bolts of cotton fabric. As a consequence, local quilters made over forty-five quilts and PLUK Oxfordshire ran a competition in 2021 to find the most creative quilts made from the donated fabric. The competition entries were then judged by the Design team from Liberty of London.
Whilst the quilts and blankets are distributed throughout a network of organisations in Oxfordshire, Ani is happy to hear of other recipients deserving a special comfort quilt or blanket. Enquiries from individual families are always welcome.
The Project Linus UK website projectlinusuk.org.uk lists contact details for coordinators throughout the UK and provides inspirational ideas and patterns for quilt designs. To contact Project Linus Co-ordinator for Oxfordshire, Ani Catt, email anicatt@yahoo.co.uk or message her via Facebook @Ani Catt or the local Facebook group Project Linus UK Oxfordshire.
